TTouch Workshop with the Homeless Cat Network

Above, left to right: Cookie, Marilynn (top center), Sue (bottom center), me

About a year ago, on a trip to the SF Bay Area, thanks to a conversation I had with Holly at the TTouch office, I connected with Cookie of the Homeless Cat Network. I went with my mother and sister out there to visit the shelter, which is so well laid-out and so well taken care of by the dedicated people who volunteer their time there, taking care of the cats in a variety of ways, as well as helping to socialize them. A number of the volunteers had learned some TTouch, and some of them practice Reiki, which is so helpful in making the cats more at ease, and more adoptable, as well.

The next time I was out there, I gave Cookie a private TTouch lesson, showing her some of the newer TTouches that she had never learned. Some time after that, Cookie and I spoke about me doing a mini-Ttouch workshop there, which would serve as a refresher course for some, and an introduction for others. I had the pleasure of doing this workshop this month, on a lovely spring day which, festively enough, was also the day of the SF Bay to Breakers race, so I also had the fun of seeing people in various costumes as I traveled to and from the workshop.

Marilynn, a long-time volunteer at the shelter, was kind enough to pick me up and drop me off at the BART station - thanks Marilynn!

I arrived at the shelter with my bag of tools, as well as some photos, before and after, of some of the shelter cats who I have worked with. The cats are housed in large condos (see below), and have the opportunity (unless they have a health issue or other factor which requires isolation), in rotating shifts, to roam in the middle section of the shelter as well. It is wonderful for the cats to have this amount of space.

I was greeted with so much warmth and hospitality by Cookie, Marilynn and the rest of the group. The group was comprised of volunteers at the shelter, plus a vet who works with the shelter, who had already taken a workshop in TTouch and has been practicing TTouch on many of her patients. It was wonderful to hear of a vet using this work in her practice.

Below: Marshmellow, who has really benefited from TTouch at the shelter

Part of the time I demonstrated on a couple of the willing cats there – Jade (below) and Hansel – and some of the time I demonstrated on a stuffed animal, which can be easier to use once I got more in-depth about how to do each TTouch.

Jade is a super-friendly black and white cat there, who seemed to particularly settle with some of the TTouches around the mouth and forehead, while Hansel responded more to the TTouches on the body. I emphasized how fluid we need to be in our thinking when we work on these animals, as each one is so individual as to what it will respond to.

Below: Me with Jade doing Abalone TTouch, a circular, calming touch using the whole surface of the hand

Two very calming TTouches for a shy animal are the abalone TTouch (above) and the llama TTouch (below). Abalone TTouch is a circular TTouch using the whole surface of the front of the hand, and llama TTouch uses the backs of the fingers. Back surfaces of the hand are less threatening than front surfaces, and the abalone TTouch is soothing as it uses a larger surface, which disperses the intensity of the touch.

Raccoon TTouches (below) are also extremely useful, especially for smaller areas of the animal, such as the forehead, the paws, the mouth, etc.

The class was very focused and engaged, and everyone had such interesting questions which helped ME to think of some new uses for the TTouches, etc. Below you see Marilynn (with the blue T-shirt) asking a question about the belly lift. She wanted to know if this would be helpful in getting a cat more comfortable being touched on the belly in a gentle way so when you go to pick the cat up, it won't be such a new or scary sensation. Great observation!

I went around to each person to see how they were doing the basic clouded leopard TTouch, to make sure the pressure wasn't too hard, that the skin was being pushed around in a circle (instead of the fingers sliding over the skin), etc.

After a break and some tasty treats (thanks to all who brought them!) we continued our discussion about TTouches, as well as some of the tools which are especially useful for shelter cats, to get them accustomed to being touched in a non-threatening way. For cats, we use tools with a variety of textures and lengths, such as dowels with an ace bandage at the end, paintbrushes, back scratchers, hair brushes, toothbrushes, makeup brushes, barbeque brushes, feathers, etc. Cats are very particular and very different from each other in their preferences of textures that they prefer, as well as where and how it is best to first make contact, so it can take some experimentation to find out what works best.

Below is a photo of Lois with her stuffed kitty, and on the table to the left you see a few of the many tools I brought for people to see and try out.

After this, we tried out some of the TTouches on the cats.

Below is Gretel, who I hear has come a long way, but she is still a shy girl with new people. I am sure that with more of the volunteers now able to do TTouch with her, it will help her continue to come out of her shell.

Here I am with Spot, a very sweet cat, who enjoyed some ear strokes, which can help a cat get very comfortable as there are many acupressure points in the ear.

Below is Stella doing TTouch with Bright Eyes. Bright Eyes came to the shelter recently, and I have heard since the workshop that TTouch has really been helping her to feel at ease.

I think everyone was pretty worn out by the end of the day, as you see by the pic of Johnny and Mr. Meow napping below :)

It was such a wonderful, enthusiastic group. We got some very lively discussions going, and everyone did a great job!

I went out to dinner after the workshop with the four women in the picture below (Cookie, Marilynn, Sue and Lynn), thanks for treating me! and we continued our discussion about TTouch, cats, and other related topics.

Thanks so much to all of you for making this a fantastic experience. And especially thanks to Cookie, who made this happen, and made it happen in such a first-class and friendly way. I look forward to working with Homeless Cat Network again soon!

Sophia Remembers......

The beautiful kitty pictured above is a very special being who arrived at the shelter where I was working over a year ago as a terrified, apparently feral kitten. Initially she was hissing, spitting, swatting, and seemed so terrified and unhappy to be there.

I spent a lot of time with her, working very slowly and gradually with her and she eventually became very comfortable with me, running to the front of the cage when I entered the shelter and extending her paw to say hello. I called her Jimmygirl.

Her best buddy in the shelter was a black kitten who we called Luke, who was semi-feral and shy at first but became comfortable very quickly. They adored each other and cuddled together. I think that Luke's calm demeanor was soothing for Jimmygirl.

Eventually Jimmygirl and Luke were adopted together into a very loving home. Jimmygirl was renamed Sophia, and Luke was renamed Poe, lovely names which suit them both so well. Their "mommy" Yasmeen has kept in touch with me, sending me pictures and updates about them. You can see how happy they are in their forever home, and it means a lot to hear about them.

TTouch and Reiki can help connect with animals in such a deep way that even when the animals in the shelter go off to homes, I still feel that connection, that they will always live in a special place in my heart.

Yesterday Yasmeen sent me the following message:

"How are you? I don't know if my sister mentioned to you the other day, but Sophie seems to remember you. The other day she was looking at your blog and found some old videos of you working on Sophia. Well she had the volume way up and Sophie was across the room napping at the time. She heard your voice talking to her gently and as soon as she heard you call her Jimmygirl she instantly popped up giving a few meows and looking around the room for you. It was the cutest thing! She kept walking and sniffing around the laptop trying to find you.

Goes to show cats do have a long memory and that they do appreciate the loving humans in their lives.

Anyways, Just wanted to let you know that Sophie does remember you and does miss you.

Have a great day!"

Thank you so much for sharing this with me, Yasmeen, it means so much to me -- and what Sophia did says so much about how animals do remember, it really touched my heart.

And thank you for adopting these two cats together and giving them such a wonderful home.

Please Don't Call them "Mean Cats": the Continued Journey of Cher

Hi folks, I have been spending a lot of time with beautiful kitty Cher at BARC shelter in Brooklyn. She has been at the shelter a long time. Most people are afraid to deal with her because she can quickly shift her energy and swat quite hard. A few other people at BARC and I have been working with her slowly and steadily and she has really been making progress.

The other day, when she was in relaxed mode, sitting on my lap PURRING, a volunteer who had not been there for a while entered and said "Is that the mean cat?"

I think I just was not processing what she said, as I never refer to cats as "mean cats", and I wasn't sure if I heard her right, so I asked her again. "Is that the MEAN CAT??"

and I said, "Do you mean Cher?" "Yes, the mean cat."

I have to take a minute to protest this term, "mean". I really prefer if someone describes the behavior, for example - that cat will swat when it gets over-stimulated, or that cat is very frightened of other cats, etc. People putting their subjective value judgments on an animal, instead of looking at the animal in a more compassionate, understanding way, is SO unhelpful to the animal and perpetuates a negative picture of the animal, making it more difficult for it to see and to be seen in a more positive way.

Soo, with that in mind, following is more about my adventure with Cher, in which she teaches me so much.


A few weeks ago, when I first started working with her, I started out by using long-handled brushes probably used for barbequeing. If she attached one brush, I could do circles and strokes on her with the other brush. I kept the sessions extremely short, just a few circles and strokes, then closing the cage. The next step was that she was comfortable enough to come out of the cage and onto my lap, just walking onto my lap briefly and then going back into the cage. When she came out, I did a few circles and strokes on her with the brushes, , sometimes rolling and stroking with the wooden handles on the other ends of the brushes. Little by little I was able to touch her more with my hands, and lately she has been purring, settling in my lap and I am able to touch her on her head and her body with my hand.


I have been reminded a few times though, that I can't let my mind stray while I am touching her because she still can get suddenly startled and get into extreme play mode and swat or suddenly think my leg is a toy to pounce on. So I have started putting a towel in my lap to provide a bit more protection in case she does this, and am more careful to limit the time of the sessions so that there is less possibility for her to get into a ramped-up mode. My cat Garbanzo shares a lot of similarities with Cher's personality. They can be quite loving and affectionate once they warm up to you but you have to really respect their limits, as when they become over-stimulated or get into play mode, you have to give them a break, either leave them be or redirect their energy and play with them with a toy. They can also get overwhelmed with too much contact, and sometimes can get startled with loud noises or other animals, so it is necessary to give them the space that they need.

This type of personality requires a lot of time and patience in working with them but the rewards are very huge. I feel that a person with a quiet, patient energy who could spend the time to let Cher become comfortable and not push her for a lot of contact too fast would be able to do well with her. I think once she is in a home, out of a cage, it will be easier for her to chill out even more. In the meantime, I am so glad she is able to have more and more calm, purring moments in my lap or with the other patient people who work with her.

Louie - Parts 1 and 2

Hi folks, I taped my session with Louie, and had to break it up into parts so the files will work properly on the blog, so two clips will be in this post and two in the next post.

Louie is a young male cat who recently came into the shelter. He can get overly stimulated easily and swat very hard with his claws out as a result. I have been trying different tools with him over a few sessions. First I tried the wand and corn dog, which just made him irritated. Then I tried a long feather with him. This worked well in one session, then in the next session, it simply made him pissed off and he wanted to destroy it.

Finally the day before yesterday I tried the tool you see here, probably originally used for basting. It is a long stick with a flat paintbrush at the end. You will see when I first open the cage he is a bit unsure, but then he grows increasingly comfortable.

He has really responded to this tool, and is comfortable with me doing circles and strokes on his head, ears, and even down his front legs. I love this cat, he has a sense of humor and is a real character! and I want to do whatever I can to make him a more comfortable cat (which will also make him more adoptable, which would be the best!).

Buddy

Recently this adorable dachshund mix arrived at our shelter, apparently with very little use of his back legs. The xray which had been done showed nothing broken, but a disk problem of some kind. My friend Jordyn Theissen (http://www.myspace.com/dancingminddesign) came to see the dog and they connected immediately, so she is now fostering him and doing an amazing job with him.

I went to see Jordyn and Buddy (and the rest of her gang, Petey, Noodles, Dura and Jinx, two dogs and two cats) a couple of days ago. Within four days, she has made amazing progress with Buddy. She walks him with a leash slung around the lower part of his body and a leash attached to a harness, which works very well. He also has little booties on his back feet to keep them from slipping too much. Buddy is still learning how to use us feet and sometimes they flop over on the top side of the foot, but he is learning fast.

I showed Jordyn how to do a variety of Ttouches on Buddy which will help him bring more awareness to the back half of his body and his feet: zigzag touches going all the way down the body and down the legs, connected abalone touches going down the body, python lifts on the legs, and raccoon touches all around the paws and pads of the paws. Buddy is an enthusiastic learner and responded to everything we did. We also put a half-wrap on him for about five minutes. I would like to try a full wrap but didn't want to overwhelm him with too much information in one session.

I demonstrated the TTouches not only on Buddy but did them on Jordyn's arm as well so she could feel the very light pressure which I was using. As we don't have many details about Buddy's condition, I did not want to use a heavy pressure with any of the touches.

I also had him simply stand on all four feet briefly (supporting his back end when he needed it) a couple of times and subtly adjusted his body and feet til he was more in balance.

Two nights later I spoke to Jordyn and she said Buddy was able to walk without the leash around his hind end. He's still learning how to do this but she said he is learning amazingly fast and is increasing in mobility by leaps and bounds. I look forward to working with them more, and congratulate Jordyn and Buddy on so much progress. I'm sure all the love she gives him doesn't hurt either :)

Taking Jesse James for a Walk

When I took the Chihuahua at the shelter (Social Tees Shelter), Jesse James, to have a bath a few days ago, I noticed that he gets so excited to go out when I bring out his leash. So today when I got to the shelter I took him out for a walk. Again, when I brought out the leash, he went running and jumping towards the door. Again, I put on a step-in harness with a double-ended leash clipped to the two side clips of the harness to have two points of contact, as Jesse can get pully on the leash. When we got out, he was very excited to be outside, smelling everything, looking around, etc. We took a little walk around the neighborhood, ending up at Animal Crackers, a wonderful local pet store on East Second St in NYC, where they gave him some treats, which helped to make the walk even more special for him.

When we got back from the shelter, Jesse munched on his treats from Animal Crackers and seemed more relaxed than usual and when it came time to put him in a cage for a night, he went in on his own and was very quiet and content there. I want to start doing this more often for him, or have other volunteers take him out, it really makes a difference.

Kittens at Social Tees

Yesterday I went again to Social Tees to work on some of the new critters, especially the very young kittens. I was happy to hear that they were all eating heartily, that is always a good sign. My two tiniest new little friends came right to the front of the cage, especially this little white one. She seemed to have more energy today than yesterday, and was eager for me to take her out, so I did. I sat her on a little towel on my lap as I sat on a table, and positioned myself with my left hand around her chest area and my other hand was doing TTouch on her, so I could easily contain her in case I needed to quickly contain her. Again, she was very receptive to raccoon touches around her head area, including around the mouth area, and very gentle ear strokes. I did raccoon touches, baby chimp touches, and sometimes abalone touches down either side of her back. These all seemed quite soothing. When she got restless, as though she had enough, I put her back in my cage. The funny thing was that she wanted to come right back out with me again! I did, but not until I had Ttouched her other three friends in the same cage. The little black and white kitten below is the second extra-tiny one (I think he is the tiniest of all) and he came out with me second. He settled right in for some raccoon touches on his head and body, and some little ear strokes. He appeared to be quite soothed by the TTouch, and also looked at me as though he wanted to come back out when I put him back in the cage.

Then I took out one of the "larger" small kittens in the cage, a little grey tabby. This one was more active and squiggly, so I just kept it out for a short time. It responded to TTouch but was in a real mood to explore so it was safer to put it back in the cage, though it really didn't want to do that! I decided that for that kitten and its other friend, a smoky-grey kitten, it would be easier to do TTouch on them inside the cage, as I didn't want to risk them getting loose in the space. At first those two kittens seemed to be a bit confused by TTouch, as though it was a new way of being touched and new way of feeling, but they responded to it well and would come back to me if I took my hand away. Later I took the two extra-tiny ones out again for some more TTouch. Below you see three of the four (the tabby is behind this little clump of kittens, I think) relaxing, as the white one looks at me and wonders what I will do next.

Next to this quartet is a cage with two "larger" kittens, probably a few weeks older - a black kitten and a tortoise-shell kitten. The black one was quite shy when I first put my hand in the cage, as you will see from the picture below.

It softly hissed at me when I started to touch it but the hissing went away once I did a few strokes and raccoon touches on its head. I would work on its head for just about half a minute, give it a break, work on the other kitten and then come back to it. It had pretty much stopped the initial hissing by the time I was done. The other kitten moved away at first but settled pretty much once I began to stroke it with the back of my hand and do some TTouch on its head. After this, I worked on some other cats then later came back to these two. They seem to be gradually getting used to contact. They look a little more relaxed below. Meanwhile, today the tabby I spoke about a couple of posts got adopted today, hooray!

Some New Arrivals at Social Tees

Yesterday when I arrived at Social Tees I encountered this irresistible lineup of cuties who had just arrived. There were two who were extra-extra tiny and two who were extra tiny. The two tiniest ones looked the most in need of food and TLC. First I gave them all food, then I took the two littlest ones out one by one, holding them in a towel to make them cozy and gently keep them from safe from getting loose. Neither one of them tried to move away from me at all once I had them in the towel and began to do TTouch. I started on their tiny heads, doing small raccoon touches and ear strokes with the lightest of pressure. I even did some TTouch around their mouth area (outside of the mouth). Then I did some Ttouch on their bodies, sometimes using my fingertips and other times using my whole hand. Both kittens relaxed into the touch so much, they just seemed as though they would be content to stay there forever. When I put each one back, they leaned against the cage, looking at me as though they wanted me to take them out again, which I did, doing Ttouch on each of the two twice.

Below is a picture of one of the tiny ones (the white one w/black) taking a nap alongside one of the "bigger" ones (the striped tabby).

All four kittens clumped together on top of each other in a kitty nap when I was done.

Below is a new cat who looks like a fully-grown version of our recently-adopted pal, Jigsaw, so we are calling him Jigsaw Jr. He even is crippled in a similar way on the same front leg, how strange is that? He was frightened when he first arrived but he relaxed quite quickly as I did some gentle TTouch and ear strokes on him.

The little cat below has a slight limp, but seems to be peppy and is very friendly. I did some TTouch on his head and Noah's march down his body with the back of my hand to introduce myself. I didn't want to overwhelm him with the first session.


The two youngsters below are also new and extremely friendly. The tabby has amazingly soft fur. They both received TTouch readily. The tabby seems to have a bit of trouble with its neck and balance, so we should be finding out more what that's about soon. I did some gentle TTouch on its body, very light pressure, and it kept rubbing itself against me.

Welcome to the new bunch, and for you NYC folks, come on down and check them out :)

Friday at Social Tees

This past Friday at Social Tees http://socialtees.com, when I arrived there, there were a bunch of folks checking out the animals there, and the day ended up with a bunch of adoptions, yay. A woman came to pick up the lovely swirly-striped cat I spoke of in my last post. I have worked a lot on this cat and it is still shy but has come a long way. I wish the kitty well in his new home. Also, a family came in and adopted three kittens.
I had a nice breakthrough with a gray cat who I have been working on. He is friendly once you touch him, and receptive to touch but has been cautious, staying at the back of the cage. About a week ago he arrived there and was a bit stumbly, coming out of anesthesia from being at the vet. The next day I saw that he must have gotten wet and then got litter stuck in his tail. I took a cat brush and between that and my hand, managed to clean his tail, so he was a lot happier after that. He was very cooperative while I was doing this, seeming to know I was trying to help him. He is very receptive to TTouch on his head and ears, and enjoys TTouch on his body but with a lighter pressure, as he is rather tight in his body still. In general, I find him lying inside of his litter box in the back of the cage. However, today I found him lying OUT of the litter box, in the front of the cage. I told him how happy I was to see him out of the litter box etc and had a great TTouch session with him. He started to act rather playful, rolling over on his back, and he had not been relaxed enough to do this before. zn
The big gray cat is still there, calling Meep meep meep to me, always asking for TTouch. And I worked again on the little tabby I worked on last time, he seemed to recognize me and seems very comfortable with me. He particularly responds to touches with the back of my hand - llama touch, chimp touch, Noah's march with the back of my hand, and also responds to ear touch.
Today (Saturday) Social Tees had an adoption event with a bunch of my furry pals in a van on First Ave near Third Street. I stopped by there briefly today to say hello to everyone. I wish them all well and hope some of them got new homes today.

Mrs. Patches and her Kids, #2

Another report on my further adventures with Kathy's feral cat, Mrs. Patches, and her kittens. They are all coming along, it is just taking time for them to get used to people and to being inside. Especially the kittens are becoming more receptive to touch, and I can touch all three of them now by hand without using the feather as an intermediary step, though the b/w one and calico one are still skittish of this at first.

Mrs. Patches still especially responds to circles on the head w/the wand and ace bandage wrapped around the end, and sometimes I am able to touch her on her head and her body with my hand, but this is only for short periods of time.
The kittens I have been taking out of the cage one by one and wrapping in a dishcloth. I had been doing this by putting the kitten in between my crossed legs sitting on the floor but found that they responded more positively when I placed them on my lap as I kneeled on the floor. Perhaps the warmth of my body below them was soothing to them. I still kept the dishtowel only partially wrapped so that I could contain them but they could still feel their feet on me. I also made sure that they could see their mother and that she could see me and the kitten I was working on. The black kitten (who has white on her chest) lets me touch her with my hand very readily now, and sometimes comes to me to be touched. When I took her out of the cage I did not have to wrap her to contain her, I just had a hand in front of her chest and then used my other hand to do TTouch on her. She responded to hair sliedes and abalone touch.
The black and white kitten is the most shy and becomes a bit passive when I hold her and contain her but settles down once I start doing TTouch on her (clouded leopard touches through the cloth), and the calico one is the most squiggly but little by little lets me contain him in the cloth to do TTouch for longer periods of time (abalone touch and clouded leopard through the cloth).



Below you see two of the kittens relaxing, and on the bottom are Mrs. Patches with all of the kittens in one clump.



When I had finished the session, I still felt Mrs. Patches to be a bit concerned. I sat quietly and told her that everything was going to be all right, that I was only there to help them and wanted all the best for them. I told her I loved them all very much.
We blinked back and forth at each other, and shortly after this, she went over to start eating ane began to eat with real gusto, and the little black and white kitten, who sticks the most closely to her, also went over to eat alongside her.